Outpost Foods to open in Mequon

Mequon — Outpost Natural Foods Cooperative has announced it will open its fourth store in Mequon on May 12.

The 16,700-square-foot store at7590 W. Mequon Road marks the co-op's fourth location and its first outside of Milwaukee County. A ribbon cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. May 12 will cap off a 10-month, $5.6 million construction project that began in July 2013.

Outpost, which started in 1970, operates three other stores at 100 E. Capitol Dr., Milwaukee; 7000 W. State St., Wauwatosa; and 2826 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., Milwaukee, and two Market Café locations at Aurora Sinai Medical Center, Milwaukee, and at the Rite-Hite Family YMCA complex in Brown Deer.

New to the co-op and unique to the Mequon location will be a stone-hearth pizza oven, local beer, kombucha and sodas on tap, and a sheltered outdoor dining pavilion. The Mequon store will feature wood rafters, Lannon stone and other elements reclaimed from buildings cleared for the site. Regular store hours will be 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

Being a cooperatively-owned business, Outpost will rely on its growing Ozaukee County ownership base to provide strong support for the store. Roughly 5 percent of Outpost's nearly 19,000 owners call Mequon home, and the co-op's management expects to attract new owners from neighboring communities.

"We couldn't be more excited about the opportunities this location gives us to demonstrate the distinct values held by our co-op," according to Pam Mehnert, Outpost's general manager. "Our 2022 goals of creating lively neighborhood markets, dynamic local food systems, strong community partnerships, sustainable solutions and amazing places to work are all captured by our Mequon location."

Outpost is known for its natural, organic and locally-sourced products. More than 90 percent of its produce is organic, and more than 30 percent of its overall sales support local growers and producers. Outpost is the fourth-largest cooperatively owned natural foods grocer in the country by sales volume, closing its 2013 fiscal year just shy of $40 million in sales.

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